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-----Original
Message-----
From: Rene and Lorraine van Raders <
rvraders@tpgi.com.au>
To: PIJ
<
pcjournl@nor.com.au>
Cc: pc
discussion group <
permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu>
Date:
Sunday, 8 March 1998 20:41
Subject: Letters to the Editor,
PIJ
>Dear PIJ
>Re Cats and Dogs
>I would like to share
a thought provoking experience. Last year Lorraine
>and I taught a
PC Design course in Sri Lanka. The "stray" dogs were
one
>of the first things we noticed (a major obstacle on our 3 hour
night
>journey from the airport).
>
>Dogs were everywhere,
scratching through the rubbish, often no more than
>skin and
bone. My immediate response was that this was awful, and
a
>problem to be addressed. I don't pretend to have come to a
complete
>understanding of this situation but I did obtain some new
insights on
>discussing it with some thinking buddhist
friends. They were against the
>government control program,
stating that killing the dogs was not part of
>their culture. Then
they explained that the dogs were merely
>manifestations of the disturbed
environment. There were so many dogs, to
>redress an imbalance in
the environment (loss of forest and natural
>predators / scavengers, lack
of recycling systems). Reducing dog numbers
>was just attacking the
symptom... something we avoid in pc, right!?
>
>So I would have to
agree with Philippa Howells (letters issue 66), that an
>attack on dogs,
cats or grass can be energy wasting exercise without
>addressing
underlying issues and attitudes. Dogs, cats and grass are
all
>species that have their place in natural and man-made
systems.
>
>I'm convinced that in our western culture the imbalance
isn't so much an
>unused waste resource (Sri Lankan scavenging animals),
but an emotional
>space that wants filling. Pets respond with
love (cupboard love, but it
>still feels great); the rotweiller sure gives
protection and a few macho
>points. The beautiful lawn wins
the respect of our peers (unless you've
>got pc friends - then you get rid
of your lawn as fast as possible).
>
>It seems to me that our
environmental problems are largely psychological in
>nature. Now
that's a real design challenge.
>
>
>
>Rene van
Raders
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